Graduate students in two courses taught by assistant professor Dr. Melony Shemberger presented their research during the university’s Scholars Week in both the spring and fall.

During the spring Scholars Week, held in April 2016, all 12 of her students in JMC 620 Strategic Communications presented their work in the general poster session that was held at the Curris Center.

Two of those students won awards for their posters. The general poster session had two divisions — sciences and humanities. Iqra Ilyas won first place for her poster on public relations pioneer Betsy Plank, and Alex Hilkey won second place for her historical research on advertising executive Helen Lansdowne Resor.

At the fall Scholars Week, Nov. 14-18, four graduate students in JMC 615 American Media History presented their papers and posters that focused on issues, topics or profiles in U.S. media history.

Students and the titles of their research included the following:
— JoAnna Anderson: “Nellie Bly: Mad-House Muse Paving the Way for Modern-day Muckrakers”
— Jennifer (Duck) Brown: “The Press and the Presidency: Analysis of Press Access From the Watergate Era to the 2016 Presidential Election”
— Benjamin Fincher: “Have We Become an Accumulative Media Culture Instead of a Mass Media Culture”
— Kiaya Young: “Female Empowerment and Propaganda in World War II”

The fall Scholars Week did not offer a poster contest. However, after Scholars Week, the posters remained on display to serve as examples for other students to use as standards in poster presentations and contests.

“Some of these posters would have also been real contenders had there been a poster contest,” said A.J. Boston, scholarly communication librarian who helped to organize Scholars Week, in an email sent to students and faculty.

Shemberger said she seeks ways to encourage her graduate students to present their work.

“I want to make sure that graduate students have an opportunity to share their research or creative activity outside the classroom in a conference-like setting,” she said. “This gives the students a presentation credit in their portfolio and encourages them to present at conferences.”

Shemberger’s 16 graduate students from both courses now have a presentation credit on their resume. Prior to Scholars Week, they had not presented their work in any kind of formal, academic setting outside of class.